Life was back to normal in Tamil Nadu on Saturday following a peaceful dawn-to-dusk shutdown Friday on the Cauvery waters dispute, marred only by the death of a self-immolation victim.

Private schools, shops, petrol pumps and other establishments that were closed on Friday, resumed their business.

The Chennai city wore a washed look owing to overnight rains.

The general strike on Friday was called by different organisations representing farmers, traders, transporters demanding Cauvery river water and protesting against attacks on Tamils and their property in Karnataka.

Several buses and trucks from Tamil Nadu were burnt to ashes by the trouble mongers in Karnataka over Supreme Court's modified order on September 12 to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu.

There were several incidents in which Tamil Nadu truck drivers were humiliated and assaulted by the demonstrators in Karnataka.

A member of Naam Tamizhar Katchi party, had also succumbed to his burn injuries on Friday after he tried to self-immolate himself here on Thursday.

His body was taken to Mannargudi - around 340 km from here - to his native for final rites.

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How often does it happen that we are deeply moved by the martyrdom of a brave soldier and want to show support and solidarity to his distraught family in a meaningful way? How many of us can actually follow up on our feelings and do something about it? Most people will answer in the negative. Well, here is an opportunity for you, as a concerned citizen, to engage with an organisation that is dedicated to fostering a spirit of patriotism and ensuring “that the families of martyrs do not endure alone.”

Flags of Honour Foundation (FOHF), a not-for-profit organisation started by Rajeev Chandrashekar, entrepreneur and Member of Parliament (MP), aspires to act as a bridge for civil society to “engage with, recognise and support the Armed Forces and inspire the younger generation through stories of valour and sacrifice of the men and women in uniform.”

FOHF was registered as a charitable trust a little after the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 when Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan sacrificed his life to save people. Mr Chandrashekar presented a cheque of Rs25 lakh to Major Unnikrishnan’s family. Soon thereafter, he decided to put a formal face to the effort to support the families of martyrs and registered FOHF as a charitable trust in July 2009. The Foundation provides financial assistance and grants to martyrs’ families by reaching out to them and understanding their needs. For instance, FOHF offered financial assistance to the widow of martyr Havaldar Channalli (who died in Kashmir). For Param Vir Chakra awardee, CQMH Abdul Hamid, FOHF undertook restoration of his dilapidated memorial and also gave a grant to his widow, Rasulan Bibi, to renovate her house.

FOHF works closely with the armed forces to identify families of brave-hearts across the country. Its team of volunteers conducts programmes to commemorate our soldiers and spread the message of their service and sacrifice to the citizens to keep their memories alive.

Shivani Sharma Dasmahapatra, programme director, FOHF says, “No one can bring back what they have lost, but for us it is of foremost importance to be there for their families and let them know that they are not alone.” She points out that the nation comes together to express grief when a brave-heart lays down his life for the nation; but public memory is short and everything is soon forgotten.

FOHF’s stated objectives include: advocacy about the concerns of the armed forces and veterans; providing assistance to families of martyrs and veterans with special emphasis on helping war widows and ensure permanent housing for martyrs’ families; work at sustainable programmes and partnerships to ensure rehabilitation, employment, education, health and financial stability of families of martyrs; educate and inculcate values of service and honour among people and instil patriotism and responsible citizenship among the youth. While the organisation is based in Bengaluru, it hopes to have a pan-India presence.

Some important advocacy campaigns taken up by FOHF were to support the one-rank-one-pension agitation by veterans, voting rights of armed forces soldiers who are away from home and helping Dr NK Kalia to petition the United Nations Human Rights Commission seeking independent investigations on the torture and death of Capt Saurabh Kalia and five jawans in the Kargil War in 1999. The voting rights campaign registered a significant victory, in March 2014, when the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to facilitate voting by armed forces and their families posted in peace zones; but the battle for voting rights to those posted in field areas continues.

You can join the effort by volunteering with FOHF or by donating to the cause. Donations are tax-exempt under Section 80-G of the Income-tax Act.

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Many have probably read how Sanjeev Sanyal, a thoughtful historian, economist and urban planner, has torn to shreds, Ashoka’s reputation as a pacifist. In case you didn’t, here is his story of the real Ashoka. In 274BC, Bindusara, son of Chandragupta, died. The crown prince, Sushima, was on the north-western frontier fighting incursions. When he rushed back to capital Pataliputra, he found that Ashoka, one of his half-brothers, had seized control. Ashoka got Sushima killed—possibly roasted alive! In the next four years, Ashoka seems to have killed all male rivals in his family. Buddhist texts mention that he killed 99 half-brothers and only spared his brother Tissa. Having consolidated his power, he was finally crowned emperor in 270BC.

Ashoka invaded Kalinga a few years later and, shocked by the death and destruction he had wrought, converted to Buddhism and became a pacifist. Or, so we believe. Sanyal argues that the rock edicts tell us that he had converted to Buddhism more than two years earlier “and from what we know of his early rule, he was hardly a man to be easily shocked by the sight of blood.”

Sanyal argues that the main evidence of Ashoka's repentance comes from his own inscriptions. “It is very curious, however, that this ‘regret’ is mentioned only in locations far away from Odisha (such as in Shahbazgarhi in north-western Pakistan) which can’t be challenged... If Ashoka was genuinely remorseful, he would have surely bothered to apologize to the people whom he had wronged. Far from it, he doesn’t even offer to free the captives. Even the supposedly regretful inscriptions include a clear threat of further violence against other groups like the forest tribes.” It is likely that it was pure propaganda by Ashoka to counter his reputation for cruelty. Indeed, the Buddhist text, Ashokavadana, tells us of more acts of genocide perpetrated many years after he supposedly turned pacifist; Ashoka once had 18,000 Ajivikas Jains in Bengal put to death in a single episode.

The job of any good book is to surprise us with facts, especially about known situations, and weave them in a flowing narrative to support an overarching theme. The Ocean of Churn does this very well. Sanyal skilfully weaves together stories picked from thousands of years history stretching from Europe to Southeast Asia to show how culture and commerce, religion and administration, family lineages and wars, kinship and genetics across centuries interacted around the Indian ocean. But this story has hardly been told from the perspective of those who lived around the Indian Ocean. Sanyal hopes to rectify that, with this book.

He has many surprises for us about our recent past, too, such as the role played by the revolutionaries in our freedom struggle. Sanyal argues that while the Netaji Subhash Chadra Bose’s role in the last stages of India’s freedom struggle is known, it was really the culmination of a strategy that had been devised decades ago. The simplest way to throw out the British was not civil disobedience but create a mutiny among the soldiers. After all, the backbone of the British empire was not the few British people who lived here but the vast army of Indian soldiers who fought for the British in many wars across the world. This was the plan of Rashbehari Bose, Sachindra Nath Sanyal (the author’s great grandfather), Har Dayal and others from the mid-1910s, influenced by Vinayak Savarkar. Another plan included bringing in arms across the sea from the east. Unfortunately, these plans failed each time. SN Sanyal was caught and sent to Cellular jail in Andaman and Bose fled to Japan. But the idea lived on and manifested years later with the dramatic escape of Subhash Bose from house arrest in Kolkata, contacting the Germans and the Japanese, and leading the charge with an Indian army from the east. Ultimately, Indian soldiers did rise up in mutiny in 1946 (naval revolt of Bombay).

This short review only offers a flavour that the history we read is probably a deeply flawed. The stories appear more nuanced, global, richer and shaped by unsung heroes in Sanyal’s narrative, where Odiya and Omani seafarers, Chola and Chinese kings, Pallava and Portuguese warriors race through the pages. A must-read.